ruggling with the young lion.

[_Stoops to pick it up_.

BOTH ATTENDANTS.--Hold! hold! Touch it not, for your life. How
marvellous! He has actually taken it up without the slightest
hesitation.

[_Both raise their hands to their breasts and look at each other in
astonishment._

KING.--Why did you try to prevent my touching it?

FIRST ATTENDANT.--Listen, great Monarch. This amulet, known as "The
Invincible," was given to the boy by the divine son of Marichi, soon
after his birth, when the natal ceremony was performed. Its peculiar
virtue is, that when it falls on the ground, no one excepting the father
or mother of the child can touch it unhurt.

KING.--And suppose another person touches it?

FIRST ATTENDANT.--Then it instantly becomes a serpent, and bites him.

KING.--Have you ever witnessed the transformation with your own eyes?

BOTH ATTENDANTS.--Over and over again.

KING [_with rapture. Aside_].--Joy! joy! Are then my dearest hopes to be
fulfilled?
[_Embraces the child_.

SECOND ATTENDANT.--Come, my dear Suvrata, we must inform Sakoontala
immediately of this wonderful event, though we have to interrupt her in
the performance of her religious vows.
[_Exeunt._

CHILD [_to the King_].--Do not hold me. I want to go to my mother.

KING.--We will go to her together, and give her joy, my son.

CHILD.--Dushyanta is my father, not you.

KING [_smiling_].--His contradiction convinces me only the more.

_Enter Sakoontala, in widow's apparel, with her long hair twisted into a
single braid_.

SAKOONTALA [_aside_].--I have just heard that Sarva-damana's amulet has
retained its form, though a stranger raised it from the ground. I can
hardly believe in my good fortune. Yet why should not Sanumati's
prediction be verified?

KING [_gazing at Sakoontala_].--Alas! can this indeed be my Sakoontala?
Clad in the weeds of widowhood, her face
Emaciate with fasting, her long hair
Twined in a single braid, her whole demeanor
Expressive of her purity of soul:
With patient constancy she thus prolongs
The vow to which my cruelty condemned her.

SAKOONTALA [_gazing at the King, who is pale with remorse_]. Surely this
is not like my husband; yet who can it be that dares pollute by the
pressure of his hand my child, whose amulet should protect him from a
stranger's touch?

CHILD [_going to his mother_].--Mother, who is this man that has been
kissing me and calling me